Even as the triple talaq petitioner from Howrah Ishrat Jahan wrote to West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee requesting protection, TMC has asked ministers to keep mum on the subject. In her letter, Ishrat, she had requested Mamata Banerjee to act against TMC Minister Siddiqullah Chowdhary and TMC Lok Sabha MP Idris Ali for their derogatory comments on Ishrat after the triple talaq verdict.
Siddiqullah and Idris maintain while they had not used derogatory words against Ishrat, they had voiced their dissent against the 22nd August Supreme Court verdict. The party leadership has since asked the TMC leaders to not voice any of their opinion on this subject matter without keeping the leadership in the loop.
However, Mamata sent a show cause notice to both the leaders to explain why any action should not be taken against them for their comments. However, this she herself has neither criticised nor welcomed the verdict of the Supreme Court.
Ishrat has also complained she is facing threats, character assassination and social boycott from her neighbours and relatives in Howrah. 30 year old Jahan’s husband divorced her in 2015 over the phone from Dubai and allegedly took awayher 4 children. In her fight for social justice, she has faced financial losses and now she has to face abuses as she is called “dirty woman”, “enemy of men” and “anti-Islam”.
In 2001, when Ishrat was 14, she was married in Bihar, where she and her husband lived before shifting to Pilkhana in Howrah. She was one of the five petitioners who filed a petition in the Supreme Court against triple talaq.
Earlier, she wrote a letter to the West Bengal CM accusing the West Bengal police of not providing enough safety and security to her. A copy of the letter was also sent to Vice President M. Venkaiah Naidu, West Bengal Governor K.N. Tripathi, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, the chairperson of National Commission for Women Lalitha Kumaramangalam and and Howrah Police Commissionerate, among others.
Chowdhary has been vocally against the verdict, whereas, Mamata Banerjee has maintained silence on the Supreme Court verdict declaring instant triple talaq unconstitutional.
